Auckland’s Ponsonby Rd stalwart Sidart will close its doors effective immediately, the restaurant’s owner and chef Lesley Chandra announced on Tuesday afternoon.
“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close Sidart effective immediately,” Chandra wrote on Facebook.
“This decision was not made lightly, and we are deeply grateful for the support, memories, and experiences we’ve shared with each of you over the years.”
The fine dining restaurant was opened by Auckland hospitality icons Sid and Chand Sahrawat in 2009. In 2019 the restaurant was named Cuisine Good Food Awards’ Restaurant of the Year. In 2021 executive chef Lesley Chandra bought Sidart from the Sahrawats.
Sidart joins a roll call of nearby favourites that have called it a day including SPQR which last year closed after 30 years and Ponsonby Road Bistro which shuttered after 18 years.
Earlier this year, the Sahrawats sold tandoor-inspired spot KOL on Ponsonby Rd to Ruchi and Sapan Parikh.
“We’ve known for a couple of months that we weren’t rating as well as we should have and the costs were piling up, we could see the concept wasn’t viable,” Chand Sahrawat told RNZ after revealing they were moving on from KOL in April.
rnz.co.nz
